Summer Diseases

The food of children in summer, should be light and nourishing; if of milk, be careful that it is sweet. If you cannot get it fresh as often as you want it, boiling will keep it sweet. Sour milk and improper food sometimes bring on the summer disease, which is easier prevented than cured.

A little rhubarb tea or tincture, with a small quantity of prepared chalk, will sometimes check it in its early stages, but the most effectual medicine that I have tried is called by some apothecaries, “red mixture,” of which I will give a recipe.

Chicken water, slightly salted, is very good; make but a little at a time, and have it fresh.

Rice gruel, sweetened with loaf-sugar, and a little nutmeg, is nourishing. To make a drink of slippery-elm, shave the bark fine and put it in water; strain it, mix it with milk, and sweeten it. Elderberry and blackberry cordials are also good in cases where there is no fever.

The stomach and back should be bathed with spirits, and a little bag of pounded spices, wet with spirits, applied to the stomach, may be used with safety, when not within reach of a physician.

A bark jacket has been used with success in many instances, cut it out of fine muslin, to be double, spread it open, and cover one side with about two ounces of the best Lima bark, and twelve pounded cloves; put on the other side, sew it up, and quilt it across; put on shoulder straps and strings of soft ribbon; sprinkle it with spirits twice a day.

The child should have the benefit of the morning and evening air. If it is not convenient to ride it out, walking will answer, in the arms of a careful nurse, carried on a pillow, with an umbrella to protect its eyes from the light.

When a child is taken sick in a city, removing it to the country often has a beneficial effect. Milk thickened with arrow root is good diet for children. Flour dried in an oven for several hours, and used to thicken milk or water, is also good, sweetened with loaf-sugar, and is nutritious. They should eat but a small portion of any thing at a time.

To cut slices of lean fresh beef or mutton, put it in a bowl, and pour a pint of boiling water on it, and let it set close to the fire for an hour, is very good to give children occasionally, with but little salt; the stomach will sometimes retain this when other things are rejected. As thirst is an attendant on this disease, much salt should be avoided in all their food. Every thing about a sick child should be kept clean, and its clothes well aired before changing them. If it is too ill to carry out of doors, have it changed from one room to another, and the apartment it left well aired.

Children who are afflicted with this disease, sometimes crave fruit. Ripe peaches, fresh from the tree, or ripe apples, baked or roasted before the fire, may he occasionally administered in small quantities with perfect safety.

To make toast-water, the bread should be toasted on both sides very dry, and boiling water poured on it.

Source: Domestic Cookery, Useful Receipts, and Hints to Young Housekeepers, Elizabeth E. Lea

Blackberry Syrup, for Cholera and Summer Complaint

Two quarts of blackberry juice.

One pound of loaf sugar.

Half an ounce of nutmegs.

A quarter of an ounce of cloves.

Half an ounce of cinnamon.

Half an ounce of allspice.

Pulverize the spice, and boil all for fifteen or twenty minutes. When cold, add a pint of brandy.

Source: Miss Beecher’s Domestic Receipt Book, Catherine Beecher

Cholera Remedy

One tablespoon of salt; one teaspoon of red pepper in a half pint of water. This will act as a powerful emetic.

Source: Tried and True Recipes, F.D.P. Jermain

Cholera and Diarrhoea

For this recipe the New York Sun newspaper paid one thousand dollars for the benefit of subscribers. It is most effectual but is not adopted for young children. Equal parts of tincture of rhubarb, cayenne, opium, ginger, spirits of camphor and essence of peppermint. Dose, half a teaspoonful every three hours.

Source: The New Galt Cook Book, M. Taylor & F. McNaught

Cholera Medicine

Tincture of opium, spirits of camphor, tincture capsicum, each one fluid ounce; purified chloroform three fluid drachms, and sufficient stronger alcohol to make five fluid ounces. Each fluid drachm or teaspoonful contains about one hundred drops, being about twenty of each ingredient. Dose for adults, one teaspoonful.

Source: Tried and True Recipes, F.D.P. Jermain

Slippery-Elm Bark Tea

Break the bark into bits, pour boiling water over it, cover, and let it infuse until cold. Sweeten, ice, and take for summer disorders, or add lemon juice and drink for a bad cold.

Source: The Canadian Family Cookbook, Grace E. Denison

Blackberry Cordial for Diarrhoea

Boil together four pounds of white sugar and one gallon of blackberry juice ; remove the scum, then add one ounce of cloves, one ounce of cinnamon, and four or five grated nutmegs. When boiled sufficiently, let it settle ; strain, and add one pint of brandy. Dose for a child, one tablespoonful ; for an adult, one wineglassful.

Source: Recipes for the Million

Pennyroyal Tea

The virtues of this old-fashioned remedy are vouched for in cholera years, by a correspondent, who says that the pennyroyal herb, made into a tea and drank hot, is the most comforting and active preventive that can be imagined when depressing symptoms set in.

Source: The Universal Cookery Book, Gertrude Strohm

Cure for Diarrhea

The following is said to be an excellent cure for the above distressing complaint: Laudanum, two ounces; spirits of camphor, two ounces; essence of peppermint, two ounces; Hoffman’s anodyne, two ounces; tincture of cayenne pepper, two drachms; tincture of ginger, one ounce. Mix all together. Dose, teaspoonful in a little water, or a half teaspoonful repeated in an hour afterward in a tablespoonful of brandy. This preparation, it is said, will check diarrhea in ten minutes, and abate other premonitory symptoms of cholera immediately. In cases of cholera, it has been used with great success to restore reaction by outward application.

Source: Our Knowledge Box, ed. G. Blackie

Blackberry Diarrhoea Syrup

To two quarts of blackberries, add one pound of loaf sugar, half an ounce of nutmegs, half an ounce of ground cinnamon, half an ounce of ground cloves, quarter an ounce ground alspice. Boil the whole together, and when cold add a pint of fourth proof brandy. From a tea-spoonful to a wine-glassful, according to the age of the patient, till relieved. In 1832 this was very successful in cases of the cholera.

Source: Valuable Receipts, J.M. Prescott